A former president of Association of Nigerian Authors (ANA), Wale Okediran (WO) is a physician, writer and politician (He had represented his constituency in Nigeria’s Federal House of Representatives). He is the founder of Ebedi International Writers’ Residency, Iseyin, a winner of an ANA Prize for Fiction and a joint winner of the 2010 Wole Soyinka Prize for Literature in Africa which he shared with South Africa’s Kopano Matlwa with his acclaim novel, “Tenants of the House”. He was interviewed by Chiaka Obasi (CK) who was among the residents for the May/June 2013 session of the Ebedi International Writers’ Residency.

CK:     From the beginning, what inspired you to write?

WO:    I think my original inspiration came from my effort at correcting what I consider to be societal ills through writing. Each time I discover that something is wrong in the society, either corruption at official levels or some form of indiscipline or injustice, I rush to my pen and paper and put it down. Initially, I was doing that through the newspaper articles before I went into creative writing. I can say that my writing was inspired by my reaction to my immediate environment. Read More .